The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Chief Gunner Clarence L. Tibbals, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to the government in the successful development of the escape device known as the “Lung”. During the early stages of its design and development Chief Gunner Tibbals, one of the inventors, furnished much of the information needed in the design of the “Lung” from the knowledge gained during his long years of experience as an expert deep sea diver and, later, during the first tests of the apparatus he repeatedly, courageously and voluntarily performed feats at great personal risk in order to prove the correctness of the theory and construction of the apparatus. When the practicability of the apparatus was being tested he made many escapes, and assisted others in making escapes, from the U.S.S. S-4 submerged to depths as much as 206 feet. It is in a large measure, due to the knowledge, courage and high sense of duty of Chief Gunner Tibbals that the development of the “Lung”, which has been pronounced the greatest single contribution to Submarine escape, has reached a successful conclusion and the device has been adopted as part of the regular equipment of all of our submarines.